The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-12-30
Road Making VS.. Road Mendlng

Road Making vs.. Road Mendlng.
Communicated.
AS the MIDLAND JOURNAL seems to
have taken up the public road subject
with a determination to effect some.
thing, we second the motion and may
add few thoughts or suggestions, tina,
are not new, though perhaps never Of
fered in their present shape to the con-
sideration of the public, who are all in
terested in the question, either as tax
payers or travellers, or both.
The subject has been approached
again and again as to how our roads
should be "mended;' whether by the
county or by districts; by the direct
action of our County Commissioners or
by special road commissioners appoint
ed by them in each district, orSssublet-
ing to the farmers through whose lands
they pass, who are supposed to have
greatest personal interest in keeping
them in repair.
Now each plan has its good points,
and each its weak ones, and it will be
in the direct line of improvement to
note some of these, and let others do
the same, and then from o mass of evil
dence and testimony it may be possible
to induce every body interested to
compromise on some plan, that they
will agree before hand to let alone long
enough to give it a fair trial, or
chance to prove its value, before it is
discarded to try another.
First then it may be remarked, that
many OF our most needed public thor
oughfares were never "made" at all so
far as adapting them to permanent use
for travel in all kinds of weather is
concerned. They were "laid out" then
"opened" and have been used ever since,
and have received annual "mendipg"
with occasional "fxing" in places, just
as the whim of the supervisor or his
means or time might dictate, and thus
we continue to use them in dry weather
and abuse them in wet, with no per-
manent work having ever been done
upon them, except in rare and d>individ-
ual cases, where man who had natural
engineering ability was superintendent
OF the work.
AS has been suggested we need some
permanent roads, that shall be made
such by competent men as engineers,
the best means and material and
Aapplying them in the most
ec4 Gal and at the same time thor
oN)eH fashion. But few men have this
talent ty nature, and fewer by educa.
tion, and yet there is hardly country
boy of twenty FIVE that does not think
himself competent for road supervisor
If the conditions requisite for success
tul road making were alike in all parts
of our county the task would be much
easier one than it now is. Our county
is as varied in its soil and subsoil, its
rocks and hidden water courses as it
we'll can be, and no uniform system can
be applied to all cases to make all our
roads like city streets, without an ex-
pense that we are unprepared for and
that is unnecessary. The permanency
of Philadelphia street when paved
with either cobble stones or Belgian
blocks is not more due to the imperish
able nature of these materials than it is
to the way in which they are used.
Cart loads of these if dumped into our
mud holes would not make smooth roads
over them. They depend upon the
support they receive from the large
curb stones at each side of the street
and the arched form in which they are
placed, Zone stone at time set on end
and all wedged together and then driv'
en- tight with big wooden "Betties') fol
their ability to sustain the wear and
heavy jar of constant trayel, Some oI
their best laid streets are supported
thus over beds of coal ashes and other
refuse used to 6ll low places where a
road on any other principal would seen
impossible. But there is one necessary
part of all the city street improvement
that can be applied at small cost wher'
it is absolutely needed in our road max
. ing, and that is UNDERTAKING.. We d.
not need the city sewer to carry all rail-
: water, Lat simple drain pipes t9 carr.